How to find a Killer Idea worth $40B | Co-founder of Snowflake, Benoit Dageville

Summary

Benoit Dageville, co-founder of Snowflake, shares the journey of creating the company with co-founder Thierry Cruanes. Initially not aiming to start a business, they focused on building a revolutionary cloud-based data and AI access product. Emphasizing simplicity and trust, Dageville highlights the importance of dreaming big, fostering open communication, and trusting team members from day one. He discusses the challenges and strategies in developing Snowflake, ultimately leading to its success as a transformative solution in the data industry.

Takeaways

• 😀 Simplicity is the hallmark of an amazing product; it should be easy to use without extensive knowledge.
• 🌟 The founders of Snowflake, Benville and Cherry, initially aimed to create a revolutionary product rather than a startup.
• 🛠️ Snowflake's inception was rooted in the idea of leveraging cloud technology to simplify data access, which was traditionally complex.
• 💡 The concept of 'fast in the cloud is free' was a pivotal realization, allowing for speed without increased cost to customers.
• 🚀 Snowflake's growth was organic, with a focus on trust and empowering employees to speak up and contribute to the product's development.
• 🔧 The importance of hiring trustworthy individuals is emphasized, as trust is foundational to a company's growth and success.
• 🤔 Trust-building in the US starts at 100% and can be reduced if necessary, contrasting with the European approach of starting from zero and building up.
• 🗣️ Encouraging open discussion and disagreement is seen as a key driver of innovation and creativity within a company.
• 🎯 Focusing on a few key features and personas is more effective than trying to appeal to everyone, which can dilute the product's impact.
• 🌐 Benville's background in database systems and his drive to create led him from France to the US, where he found the opportunity to innovate.
• 🔗 The transcript also mentions Paragon, an embedded integration platform that helps B2B SaaS companies streamline their integration processes.

Q & A

Who are the co-founders of Snowflake mentioned in the transcript?

The co-founders of Snowflake mentioned in the transcript are Benville and Cherry Cranes.

What was the initial goal of the co-founders when they started Snowflake?

The initial goal of the co-founders was to build an amazing product, not necessarily to start a company or a startup.

What does the speaker emphasize as the number one quality of an amazing product?

The speaker emphasizes simplicity as the number one quality of an amazing product.

How does the speaker describe the importance of conflict and disagreement in building amazing technology?

The speaker describes conflict and disagreement as essential for building amazing technology, as they lead to discussions that result in consensus and better products.

What is the significance of the saying 'go direct' at Snowflake?

The saying 'go direct' at Snowflake signifies the importance of being able to speak up and express disagreements in a secure environment, which encourages creativity.

What is the speaker's advice on hiring when it comes to growing a company?

The speaker advises to hire someone that you trust from day one, as trust is critical in allowing employees to do their best work without micromanagement.

What is the difference in trust-building between the US and Europe as described by the speaker?

In Europe, trust is built gradually, starting from zero, whereas in the US, trust is given 100% from the start and then adjusted if necessary.

What was the main challenge the speaker faced when building integrations for their previous company, Polymail?

The main challenge was the exhausting process of building integrations with third-party apps and the never-ending maintenance that followed.

What is Paragon and how does it help engineering teams?

Paragon is an embedded integration platform that allows engineering teams at B2B SaaS companies to ship native integrations seven times faster by focusing only on business logic.

What was the 'killer idea' behind Snowflake that the co-founders believed could revolutionize the industry?

The 'killer idea' was leveraging the cloud to create a data access solution that was simple to use and could operate significantly faster without costing more for customers.

How did the co-founders approach the challenge of explaining Snowflake's revolutionary nature to potential customers?

They used familiar concepts and terminology from the traditional data systems to make Snowflake's revolutionary features more approachable and understandable.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Founding Snowflake with a Vision for Data Simplicity

Berville, one of the co-founders of Snowflake, shares the origin story of the company, which was founded on the mission to revolutionize data and AI access in the cloud. He and Cherry Cranes, the other co-founder, initially had no intention of starting a company but were driven by the desire to create an amazing product. They spent months dreaming up big ideas and focusing on simplicity as the key to an incredible product. Berville emphasizes that a product should be easy to use without extensive knowledge, and that great technology is born from disagreements and discussions. Snowflake's growth has been guided by the principle of hiring trustworthy individuals, reflecting the cultural trust differences between Europe and the U.S.

05:01

🌐 The Cloud Revolution in Data Systems

In this paragraph, Berville discusses the inception of Snowflake, which began with the founders leaving Oracle to pursue a groundbreaking idea in cloud-based data systems. They spent time brainstorming and dreaming about the potential of cloud technology to transform data access. The founders believed that the cloud could enable a system that was not only faster but also cost-effective, as the speed could be increased without raising costs for customers. This led to the concept that 'fast in the cloud is free.' The narrative highlights the importance of simplicity in product design and the challenges of introducing a revolutionary product to the market without alienating potential users.

10:03

🛠 Embracing Simplicity and Trust in Product Development

The final paragraph delves into the critical aspects of creating an amazing product: simplicity and the power of under-the-hood complexity. Berville uses the iPhone as an analogy to illustrate the balance between user-friendly simplicity and advanced technology. He stresses the importance of focusing on a few key features and avoiding the temptation to appeal to everyone, which can dilute the product's effectiveness. The paragraph also touches on the importance of fostering a secure environment for open discussions and disagreements, which are essential for developing great technology. Berville shares insights on trust in hiring, advocating for giving full trust to new hires from the start, and contrasts European and American approaches to trust in professional relationships.

Keywords

💡Snowflake

Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehousing company that aims to revolutionize data access and AI in the cloud. It is central to the video's theme as it represents the product that the co-founders sought to build, emphasizing simplicity and ease of use. The script mentions how Snowflake was envisioned to provide answers to data queries without the need for managing complex infrastructure.

💡Co-founder

A co-founder is an individual who is part of the original team that starts a company. In the video, Berville and Cherry Cranes are highlighted as co-founders of Snowflake. Their roles are pivotal as they share the vision and journey of creating a product that simplifies data access in the cloud.

💡Dreaming

Dreaming, in the context of the video, refers to the process of envisioning and conceptualizing a big idea or product. The co-founders emphasize the importance of dreaming as a first step in the creation of Snowflake, where they imagined the potential impacts and possibilities of a cloud-based data solution.

💡Simplicity

Simplicity is a key quality of an amazing product according to the video. It is defined as the ease of use and accessibility of a product without requiring extensive knowledge about it. The script illustrates this with the example of Snowflake, which aims to be simple yet powerful, allowing users to interact with data without dealing with complex systems.

💡Amazing Product

An amazing product, as discussed in the video, is one that stands out for its innovation, ease of use, and impact on its industry. Snowflake is presented as an example of such a product, aiming to change the traditional approach to data management by offering a simple and efficient cloud-based solution.

💡Arguments and Discussion

Arguments and discussion are portrayed as essential for building amazing technology in the video. They represent the process of refining ideas through debate and consensus, leading to better outcomes. The co-founders of Snowflake used this approach to develop their product, emphasizing the importance of differing opinions and open dialogue.

💡Trust

Trust is highlighted as a critical aspect of growing a company in the video. It refers to the confidence placed in employees, particularly those in key positions. The co-founders believe in hiring individuals and trusting them from the start, which is contrary to the European approach of gradually building trust. Trusting employees is shown as a way to delegate effectively and foster a secure environment for creativity.

💡Cloud

The cloud is a central concept in the video, representing the technological platform that enables Snowflake's services. It is defined as a means of data storage and computation that is accessible over the internet. The script discusses how the cloud allows for the provisioning of resources that can dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of data processing without increased cost.

💡Integrations

Integrations refer to the connections and compatibility that a product, like Snowflake, has with other third-party applications. The video mentions the challenges of building integrations and the decision to create Paragon, a platform that simplifies this process for engineering teams, allowing them to focus on business logic rather than underlying complexities.

💡B2B SaaS Companies

B2B SaaS stands for 'Business-to-Business Software as a Service' companies. These are organizations that provide software solutions to other businesses, often on a subscription basis. In the script, Paragon is described as a platform that B2B SaaS companies rely on to ship native integrations more efficiently.

💡Revolution

Revolution, in the context of the video, signifies a major change or breakthrough in an industry. Snowflake is described as a revolutionary product in the data management space, aiming to transform how data is accessed and used in the cloud, making it faster and simpler than traditional methods.

Highlights

Benville and Cherry Cranes are co-founders of Snowflake, a company aiming to revolutionize data and AI access in the cloud.

The founders' initial goal was to create an amazing product, not necessarily a startup.

The importance of dreaming big and not being scared to explore what could be possible with new ideas.

Simplicity is the number one quality of an amazing product; it should be easy to use without extensive knowledge.

The challenge of creating technology that appeals to everyone without making anyone super happy.

The value of direct communication and conflict in fostering creativity and building great technology.

Snowflake's approach to encouraging open discussion and the security of being able to disagree.

The growth of Snowflake to approximately 9,000 employees and the critical lesson of hiring trustworthy individuals.

The cultural difference in trust-building between Europe and the US, and the importance of starting with full trust.

The backstory of Paragon, an embedded integration platform for B2B SaaS companies to streamline integration efforts.

Benville's French origin and his move to the Bay Area for better opportunities in creating new systems.

The founders' background at Oracle and their departure to pursue the creation of a revolutionary product in the cloud.

The process of ideation and dreaming that led to the concept of Snowflake, focusing on the potential of cloud technology.

The revelation that speed in the cloud can be achieved at no additional cost, leading to the 'fast in the cloud is free' concept.

The strategy of balancing innovation with familiarity to ensure customer adoption and prevent overwhelming users.

The art of explaining new technology in a way that is both familiar and revolutionary to facilitate gradual adoption.

The emphasis on simplicity in product design and the analogy of the iPhone as a simple yet advanced piece of technology.

The importance of focusing on a few key features and personas rather than trying to appeal to everyone.

Transcripts

I'm berville I'm one of the co-founder

at snowflake snowflake is a company

whose mission is to revolutionize access

to data and AI in the cloud myself and

Cherry cranes who is the other

co-founder of snowflake the the funny

thing is that we never wanted to do a

company uh we never wanted to do a

startup really we wanted to build an

amazing product we we spent you know

literally months in my apartment and we

were dreaming you have to dream to find

big idea you you have not to be scared

too dream about what what does it mean

if if if only that was possible what

would be the impacts and then you work

back from that if statement and you see

maybe we can make it happen the number

one quality of an amazing product is

Simplicity if you can use a product

without knowing a lot about these

products this product is going to be

amazing it's always tempting to say oh

I'm going to appeal to everyone when

when you try to make everyone happy no

one will be super happy okay amazing

technology I I always always say is

built from you know arguments and

discussion and I disagree with you I

think we should do this no we should do

that we have a saying in at snowflake go

direct you know we are human beings so

we have conflicts we have disagreements

so so it's important to be able to do

that in a very secure environments where

where people feel that they can they can

speak up they they can say no I I think

this is this is not going to work and it

doesn't matter you know who you are you

know to say these type of things to

encourage creativity you you have to

encourage you know everyone to speak and

as of today we are about you know 9,000

employees the the number one lesson that

we learn you know to grow a company is

to hire someone that you trust otherwise

you you become the B neck if you if you

hire someone you have to absolutely

trust them from day one you don't build

that trust I'm I'm from Europe and

Europe you you don't trust people you

start you know almost with zero you know

as you know these people you give them

points so to speak and then you fully

trust them in the US is the reverse you

start with 100% right you never met this

person you you you give full trust and

then you remove if you see that it

doesn't work you you have to trust and

give you know someone else the

opportunity you know do their thing and

and you know this is why you hire them

so this trust is is a super critical

aspects and and my take is give it% to

them from day one don't do the European

thing back when I was building my ycb

company poly mail our users kept asking

for Integrations with thirdparty apps

like Salesforce HubSpot and slack but we

quickly learned how exhausting it is to

build these Integrations not to mention

the never-ending maintenance that

followed that's why we started Paragon

Paragon is an embedded integration

platform that engineering teams at B2B

SAS companies like copy ai ai 21 and

cinch rely on to ship native integration

seven times faster with Paragon

Engineers only focus on the business

logic not the underlying complexities

leading to more closed deals product

usage retention and customer upsells

scale your products integration roadmap

today learn more at use paragon.com

as you can see from my thick French

accents I am French by origin but I live

in the Bay Area uh for many many years I

came here in ' 96 I did my PhD in

database system but I felt that in

France there was no real opportunity to

create no new system and I'm a Creator

I'm I'm I'm somewhere an artist is

stupid to say but software Engineers

sometime you know feel ofs a little bit

as artist because they build new things

and France was not a good good

environment to do that uh I did research

in France uh but then I left to join

Oracle the core developments myself and

Cherry cranes who is the other

co-founder of snowflake we were both

working in the core database division at

Oracle and you know the the the the

funny thing is that we never wanted to

do a company uh we never wanted to do a

startup really we wanted to build an

amazing product we thought the cloud

could could be a revolution for data

access traditionally people would put

data in their data centers and they

would you know use you know systems to

access this data we thought with the

cloud we could create a solution so

simple uh where people would not have to

you know manage you know infrastructure

they could you know just ask you know

question to their data and you know

snowflake would give them answer and and

to do that we had to do a startup we had

to do a company so cherry and I we left

from from um from Oracle and when we

started with with chry we had no idea

what we were going to do and actually we

had no idea if we were going to find a

great idea in in terms of um of finding

a great idea it takes time uh we started

in August 2012 and we worked until you

know end of 2012 12 to start to build a

team so I had a small apartment on El

Camino Cherry was coming every day to my

apartment we bought a whiteboard um we

had two laptops and we kind of refold

completely from the ground up of what

what cloud means for these Data Systems

how Cloud can be impactful how can we

build snowflake in this completely

different environment than traditional

Lether centers and and we were dreaming

you have to dream to find big idea you

you have not to be be scared to dream

about what what does it mean if if if

only that was possible Right what what

is was what would be the impact and then

you work back from that if statement and

you see maybe we can make it happen

right it was a big if it was a little

bit of a dream but maybe it's not and

let's look at the the the the new

technology and that's the other

important thing is technology unlocked

you know new possibilities and I think

it's important to understand what new

technology can do to an industry and and

think back a little bit and say wow you

know Cloud you know that's what cloud

can do and and that's really what what

what we were looking for is how Cloud

can have a dramatic impact on on this

industry which was you know super old

and and super boring somewhere the world

of data database is I mean it's it's

like boring and what was this great idea

was about you know in the cloud you you

can you know get provision a lot of

resources server machines so if you have

let's say 10 machine or if you have one

100 machines with 10 times more machines

basically you can go 10 times faster so

we say wow and we know how to do that so

we said oh wow in the cloud we can

allocate maybe 100 servers 1,000 servers

and we can go therefore one times faster

1,000 1,000 times faster actually

because we rent the computer resources

to the crow provider when we are done we

can return that and so in the cloud if

you go 10 times times faster you pay

exactly the same price because you use

these resources you know 10 times 100

times 1,000 times less even though you

have more resources because you use them

less you pay the same price so we said

fast in the cloud is free and if we can

do that and this was of course

technically very challenging but if we

can do that we can you know basically

build a system that can go 10 times 100

times faster than any system that exist

today I mean at the time and yet it will

not cost you know for our customers more

so that's the killer idea and and when

we had this idea we we said if we can

make it happen okay if we can build it

then we have an amazing company so so we

knew that this was going to be a

revolution and actually it became a

revolution we started to have one

customer two customers and they were

blown away by by what you could do is

snowf flag and and without complexity it

was simple to use because we remove you

know all the friction we were able to to

get more and more customers and you know

people would talk to each other and then

it gets to this viral you know stat

where you know it it it it exploded we

were very worried about that because we

said if we show that snowflake is so

different people are are going to be

worried too at the same time if you say

is exactly the same as what you are

using you know people are not going to

adopt you so you have to find a good

balance sometime you have to explain

yourself in comparison to existing

technology we for example use same you

know terminology that was used in the

old days so we had you know system

called Warehouse you know everyone knew

Warehouse that's a familiar concept so

you have to use you know existing cont

Concepts uh such that you can help you

know people go your way and and and your

reol ution so somewhere if you say it's

a revolution it's it's possible that it

will not work so you have to bring them

slowly uh not too fast so It's Tricky

it's a very tricky it's a lot of uh

explanation how you explain it how you

make it look you know familiar somewhere

uh even though it's very different so so

it's an

art the number one quality of an amazing

product is simplicity

if you can use a product without knowing

a lot about this product this product is

going to be amazing right think of cars

things of iPhone things of of simple

product these are the one where you say

haha wow and a product which is simple

but at the same time so powerful people

who have complex products but expose

this complexity to the end users are not

making great products so for me it's

first of all you know Simplicity but but

underneath you know again if you take

the analogy of the iPhone the iPhone is

nothing but simple ACH piece of

technology right is probably the most

advanced pie of Technology but when you

use you know this product you know they

are you know simple so that's to me is

probably the number one uh aspect of a

great product you know take free fingers

and you know list all the things that

you could do potentially but but try to

limit it to few very few important thing

and and you rank you you just say you

know our product obviously need this and

that it's always tempting to say oh I'm

going to appeal to everyone uh uh and

then you do a bad job right because you

you know you you try to make everyone

happy when you try to make everyone

happy no one will be super happy okay I

I can tell you uh uh so the way to

streamline you know is both to to to

really focus on few things and also to

make these few things focus on you know

few Persona yeah don't don't try to

appeal to everyone we we we have a

saying in at snowf flag go direct we are

human beings so we have conflicts we

have

disagreements and and that's very

important to recognize right amazing

technology I always say is built from

you know arguments and discussion and I

disagree with you I think we should do

this no we should do that and and these

discussions are the thing that that

really makes the best product at the end

right because you you get to this

consensus you understand you know

different opinions so so it's important

to be able to do that in a very secure

environment where where people feel that

they can they can speak up they they can

say no I I think this is this is not

going to work and and it doesn't matter

you know who you are you know to say

these type of things so so so I think

you have to encourage you know to

encourage creativity you you have to

encourage you know everyone to speak

the most important to grow is is is

indeed to hire someone that you trust

otherwise you become the B neck and and

you don't want to to have this this this

full control of everything how you get

get you gain this trust is interesting

right I I remember actually the first

eyer we had at snowflake our first one

was asking a lot of question before he

wanted to sign he was asking tons of

question you know like okay how is it

going to work like suspicious and he

said benoa he told me one day you know

benoa I'm asking all this question it

was from Europe he say you know I'm I'm

from Europe and Europe you you don't

trust people you start you know almost

with zero and then you know as you know

these people as you start to trust them

you you you know you give them points so

to speak and then you fully trust them

you but you start at zero and and you

build that trust over time he said in

the US is the reverse you start with

100% right you never met this person you

you you give full trust and then you

remove if you see that it doesn't work

and and I would say the the the the

biggest you know thing for me is that

from day one you give full trust if you

if you hire someone you have to

absolutely trust them from day one you

don't build that trust it could not work

we made some you know iring mistake and

we discovered that oh this is not

working you

know for one reason on another then you

can remove this trust but you you start

100% you you have to trust and give you

know uh uh give someone else the

opportunity you know do their thing and

and you know this is why you hire them

so this trust is is a super critical

aspect and and my take is give it 100%

to them from day one don't do the

European thing

[Music]